Continental Congress

British coercive measures against Massachusetts encouraged representatives from the colonies to coordinate resistance. The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in September 1774, with delegates from every colony except Georgia. A coordinated boycott required agreement on terms and ways to sustain compliance among merchants and local communities.

The association adopted in October specified conditions for import restrictions and a possible later export embargo. The delegates also addressed grievances to the king and to several publics, while arranging to meet again if necessary. Attempts to secure redress remained part of the Congress’s work; independence was not yet a shared starting position.

References: [1]

Armed conflict had begun by the time the Second Continental Congress assembled in May 1775. It created the Continental Army and appointed George Washington to command it, while also pursuing reconciliation through the Olive Branch Petition. Military organization, finance, supplies and diplomacy demanded continuing coordination beyond the level of an individual colony.

In 1776 delegates debated independence and relations with other powers. The resolution for independence was adopted on 2 July, followed by the Declaration of Independence on 4 July. Printed copies went to assemblies, committees and military commanders. The Congress therefore combined decision-making with the work of communicating those decisions throughout a developing wartime polity.

References: [1] [4]

Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation in November 1777, but disputes involving representation, voting and western lands delayed ratification. The document took effect in March 1781 after approval by all thirteen states. It gave each state one vote in Congress and retained powers in the states unless they were expressly delegated to the union.

This introduced the stage conventionally called the Congress of the Confederation. A written framework governed national affairs, but problems involving taxation, commerce and the fulfillment of state commitments continued. A convention drafted a new Constitution in 1787, followed by the new federal government in 1789 and a legislature organized into two chambers.

References: [3]

During the war Congress moved between cities as military conditions changed. The House of Representatives’ institutional chronology records the service periods of the Continental Congresses and the later Confederation Congress separately. It also explains that modern numbered sessions do not always correspond to formal numbering used by the delegates themselves.

Journals, delegates’ letters, resolutions and diplomatic documents preserve the institution’s work. They permit inquiry into instructions from the colonies and states, negotiation over common measures, implementation and the search for foreign recognition. This documentary record connects resistance, independence, the war and the formation of later federal institutions through the decisions and continuing activities of a representative assembly.

References: [2]